The deadline for developers to complete the building of Help to Buy properties has been extended by over a month to 17th March.
Housebuilders had previously been tasked with meeting a 31st December 2022 deadline, which was then extended by a month to 31st January 2023. This has now been pushed back to 17th March 2023. A government spokesperson said:
“Supporting aspiring homeowners is a government priority. We have extended the Help to Buy deadline to 17th March to make sure people do not lose out on their homes because developers haven’t met the building deadline.
Housebuilders must make sure they finish all building work by this date and the legal completion deadline remains 31st March.”
This comes as strikes and supply chain issues have left around 100 of the final homes sold under the scheme unfinished as buyers clamour to receive the requisite equity loans for their purchase.
Then housing minister Lucy Frazer told the Home Builders Federation that there would be “no leniency” on the legal completion deadline of 31st March, adding that there are a number of cases where longstanding issues mean the deadline in unlikely to be met. In such cases, Frazer said developers must refund customers’ reservation fees.
